downas

in most nation-states around the world, the military spends as much time repressing uprisings against colonial capitalism as it does fighting “foreign” enemies. the united states is no exception, as this brief look at a national counterinsurgency campaign in one section of u.s.-occupied ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ (anishinaabewaki) will show.

as the may-june 2020 uprisings against the police took place, the michigan national guard supported a curfew in grand rapids by maintaining vehicle barricades, boarding up stores, and otherwise giving operational support to city and state police, who beat protesters, shot tear gas, and made arrests. the troops were summoned by the mayor.

they did much the same in kalamazoo, where the mayor also requested national guard reinforcements after declaring a curfew—threatening jail for noncompliance—as his police force tear-gassed demonstrators at point-blank range. in lansing, national guard troops were deployed to similar ends.

many people infected by the u.s. left's racial, colonial, gendered, and [dis]ableist biases act as if national military forces are different from—specifically, not as bad as—police. this bias is especially easy for u.s. citizens to maintain, since the overwhelming majority of victims of “the troops” suffer and die outside the physical and conceptual borders of the country. but as demonstrated above, elites in the imperial core who believe their positions are seriously threatened call on those same troops when the cops aren't enough. and on more than one occasion, the army national guard have proven themselves able to take part in lethal repression “at home” when ordered.

this has been written in solidarity with efforts to stop camp grayling.

Assata Olugbala Shakur, a veteran of the Black Liberation Army currently believed to be living in exile in cuba after escaping from political imprisonment in new jersey, is on the widely reported 2019 version of the u.s. government's no fly list. this shouldn't surprise anyone aware of the Black revolutionary politics she supports and her continued presence on the fbi's most wanted list. but despite global news coverage of notable people on the list—including many of her contemporaries on the revolutionary left—it has gone unreported in mainstream media outlets.

a screenshot from the no fly list showing 21 entries which all appear to refer to Assata Shakur, based on the birthdate, the use of her birth & married names, their grouping together on the list, & other context clues.

a screenshot from the no fly list showing 37 consecutive entries which all appear to refer to Assata Shakur, based on similar contextual evidence as the first screenshot. a screenshot from the no fly list showing 37 consecutive entries which all appear to refer to Assata Shakur, based on similar contextual evidence as the first screenshot.

interested researchers can find download links to the leaked no fly list (along with the additional screening list) here.

many people are aware the person featured in this post is a snitch (she gave information about activists to the police) & serial abuser. however, her frequent attempts to regain public-facing positions of power & crowd of sycophants make it easy for those unfamiliar with her to become confused & misled about these facts. the documentation below is intended to clarify why laurelai & her defenders are – rightly – ostracized. (it's far from exhaustive; there's plenty more despicable things she's done.)

proof all the names in this post's title refer to the same person

2017 testimony on snitching in 2011

accounts from victims of laurelai (trigger warning for many kinds of abuse, but particularly rape):

the headlines are everywhere: the guardian (“'It never stops': killings by US police reach record high in 2022”), bloomberg (“Police Killed 1176 People in 2022, Most Ever in the US”), the washington post (“Fatal police shootings in 2021 set record since The Post began tracking, despite public outcry”). the numbers cited vary: 1176 victims in the first 2 articles mentioned above, 1055 in the third. mapping police violence, a liberal NGO which claims to publish “the most comprehensive and up-to-date data on police violence in America”, recorded 1186 victims.

none of these totals, however, would make 2022 the most lethal year on record for victims of u.s. fascism's domestic footsoldiers. before it was shut down due to what its creator described as a lack of support, the volunteer-run killedbypolice.net[1] (KBP) recorded 1194 victims in 2017 & 1222 victims in 2015. it seems more likely that the slaughter has been steady, unchanging, rendered banal – possibly since at least the 20th century.

the point here is not so much about the details of the numbers, though those are important for statistical analysis, but the systematic erasure of 'grassroots' research by the imperialist, cop-loyalist anglo media establishment. despite their vastly greater resources, they are doing a worse job than KBP of the same task, effectively producing systematic undercounts[2] & working to enshrine them as authoritative. now, 'radical' activists are repeating these headlines as undisputed fact, when the reality of contemporary oppression – of which a constant barrage of police executions worldwide is just one aspect – is even worse than they will admit.

[1] since 2018, the URL has been taken over by others, presumably unaffiliated with the original KBP project. [2] while there must be methodological differences behind the varying numbers produced by anglo mass media, mapping police violence, & KBP, all of them are problematic. among these problems is the fact that they make no attempt to count killings by police in most of the u.s.-occupied overseas colonies, which are generally forgotten, ignored, or deliberately overlooked by both the general population & establishment resistance within the 50 states & d.c.

most unions in klanada are affiliates (members) of the CLC. some of these unions openly include cops & their support staff. for example:

  • Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE). “The RCMP hires civilian employees in a wide variety of disciplines to support our police officers at the detachment, provincial and federal levels. From administrative support to scientists in the laboratories to telecommunications officers answering 911 calls, these employees play a critical role”

  • Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). “CUPE also represents close to 5,600 employees in fire and police operations, including approximately 1,000 administrative and dispatch employees in Quebec and several hundred more in British Columbia. … Some police officers, firefighters, and correctional officers are CUPE members in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. CUPE 104 represents 1,200 RCMP communication specialists across Canada… Finally, several hundred members in Quebec work in the field of secure transportation.”

  • National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE). “Among the public sector members of the National Union are thousands of women and men who work in Canada’s justice system. These include Youth Corrections Professionals, Correctional Officers, Probation Officers, Sheriffs, as well as those who work in community-based social services, child protection, youth counsellors and other related social services.”

“No, I'm not an American. I'm one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, I'm not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver — no, not I. I'm speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.”

  • el hajj malik el shabazz, speech along the gayó’ha’geh (transcript)

“We are not fascist, or Amerikans. We are an oppressed, economically depressed colonial people. We were brought here, from Africa and other parts of the world of palm and sun, under duress, and have passed all our days here under duress.”

  • george jackson, letter to fay stender, soledad brother (html, web viewer)

“We are not American. We are not American. We are not American. We are not American. Say it in your heart. Say it when you sleep. We are not American. We will die as Hawaiians. We will never be Americans.”

“It seems as if more and more people are coming to understand that we are a distinct people who deserve to be able to determine our own destinies. It is becoming more and more clear that ameriKKKa does not accept us- it is at war with us. We must collectively realize, as Malcolm did, that 'we didn’t land on Plymouth rock, Plymouth rock landed on us.' We are not African-ameriKKKans, we are New Afrikans. We will fight till the bitter end for the liberation of our entire nation, and we will not integrate into a burning house!”

  • AFL-CIO: any union on this list is part of an organization which welcomes & defends cops. affiliated cop unions include:

  • SEIU. affiliated cop unions include:

    • NAGE (National Association of Government Employees)

  • Teamsters. they even wrote this:

    • “The Teamsters Union, which currently represents tens of thousands of law enforcement officers nationwide, recently convened a special meeting of law enforcement officers in Des Moines, Iowa...”
    • “the union provides access to a unique benefit for members: The Teamsters Legal Defense Fund (TLDF). The program provides legal representation and guidance to Teamster member participants in law enforcement with quality professional legal representation and stands by law enforcement Teamsters and their families when they need advice, guidance and comfort the most.”

the widespread presence of police & prison guards in major u.s. labor organizations flows from the white supremacist & patriarchal foundations of the unions, which have sought to keep non-whites (especially Black people) & gender-oppressed people from gaining a share of their colonial privileges.

further reading

  • settlers: the mythology of the white proletariat
  • cops in unions and the extension of the state
    • “Though police in the United States have developed their own organizations to protect their interests since the late 19th century, their entry and participation in the wider labor movement is a more recent development. For example, the International Union of Police Associations (IUPA) entered the AFL-CIO only in 1979; the International Brotherhood of Police Officers became an affiliate of SEIU only in 1982.”
  • AFL-CIA

it's a fair question, considering some of the circumstances:

in november 2019, eugen rochko, CEO of mastodon gmbh & administrator of mastodon's flagship instance, banned the assam police in india from mastodon.social, citing community saftey concerns. however, a dutch police account, registered in 2016, remains on the instance more than 3 years after the assam police account was suspended, despite user reports & public warnings.

on another level, eugen has been shown to have loose connections to the european policing apparatus through the #EUnomia project, which is conducting research for surveillance & social control online. he was paid €63,290.07 to work for this european union-supported initiative.

he also suspended the accounts [1, 2] of two revolutionary colombian organizations, the FARC-EP & the ELN, from the flagship instance without explanation. given that these groups have been internationally targeted & isolated as “criminal” organizations & suspended from other social media sites at police request, this also raises red flags.

it would be relatively straightforward for eugen to issue a statement denying—or if necessary, detailing—any past, present, or intended future collaboration between mastodon & law enforcement agencies. to date, however, no such statement has been made.